Blooming in the garden today :)

Some pics from my front yard. I don't remember what the yellow flowers are. The second pic is of some rather wild and wickedly thorny roses that I have to cut back often since they grow extremely tall if I let them. The third is called "Tampa Vervain".

I feel for you! Thank goodness spring will come to all of us, even in the north... and now while it's cold, it's a wonderful time to get those garden spots ready.

I've been transitioning over to permaculture methods, gradually eliminating as much lawn as possible in my small front yard. I started with a truckload full of free mulch from the electric company (ground up tree trimmings mostly). This week a neighbor across the street has been bagging up tons of leaves that have collected over fall and winter in her backyard. Since she said I could have them, I've been hauling them over (20+ bags so far and more to go).

I took just two pictures this morning. I'm not much of a photographer, so please forgive if they aren't very good. The first one is a Gulf Fritillary caterpillar on my passion flower vine. The second one is my herb spiral (I snuck a few flowers in as fillers until the herbs grow larger).

Just planted 82 bulbs in my flower garden - a mixture of lilies, day lilies, gladiolus and crocuses.
Here's a pic of the dirt. Some stuff had already sprouted from last year's bulbs. This being Hawaii, I don't have to pull them out every year.

Just planted 82 bulbs in my flower garden - a mixture of lilies, day lilies, gladiolus and crocuses.
Here's a pic of the dirt. Some stuff had already sprouted from last year's bulbs. This being Hawaii, I don't have to pull them out every year.

Some pics from my front yard. I don't remember what the yellow flowers are. The second pic is of some rather wild and wickedly thorny roses that I have to cut back often since they grow extremely tall if I let them. The third is called "Tampa Vervain".

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Been told beer kinda works... but I might get into trouble for alcohol abuse.

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The beer you would have to put in a shallow dish. The slugs crawl in, drink (presumably get drunk) and drown. It works so -so - you have to refill it often, plus you have bowls of beer all over. And who want their garden looking like Norrington's living room?
If you are not looking specifically for a natural remedy, there are products for snails - pellets that you spread around at night that they eat and die.

P.S. - love the black lilly. You rarely see that color, especially around here.

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Late Summer (Puerto Rico):
This is a soursop (guanabana) flower. It is a tropical fruit, related to the pawpaw. This is growing in a planter on my roof; we had our first fruit this year - one lonely soursop. But hey, its a start.

These are also a fruit, called Gac. I have occasionally seen it referred to as "baby jackfruit". The plants are either male or female; top picture is the female flower, the bottom the male. It is an aggressively growing vine (3-5 feet per month). When it fruits it will produce a red, spiny squash like fruit that is used in Vietnam to color and flavor the mooncakes they make to celebrate their new year.

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Well, it's growing, and it's in the garden - so technically this counts:

Just eyes at this point, but a few days later:

You can see the tadpoles forming. about a week after the first picture:

These are coquis, a frog native to Puerto Rico. Interestingly, when the eggs hatch, it as a fully formed frog and not a tadpole. Also, the eggs are laid out of the water (here on a palm leaf)and are kept moist by the humidity, rain and parent frog. There are several different types, and the adults are about the size of a thumb.

OH! I wondered how the coqui frogs would hatch in the mountains here in Hawaii away from water! That explains it!

They are NOISEY little things! Omg! As an invasive species here, we report their presence (hard to not notice them) and the Zoo and University people go out and catch them. They ruin the habitat of our native birds. Did you know they breed so much here that the population is three times denser than it is in Puerto Rico? Oi! When mating season comes, need to use ear muffs!

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OH! I wondered how the coqui frogs would hatch in the mountains here in Hawaii away from water! That explains it!

They are NOISEY little things! Omg! As an invasive species here, we report their presence (hard to not notice them) and the Zoo and University people go out and catch them. They ruin the habitat of our native birds. Did you know they breed so much here that the population is three times denser than it is in Puerto Rico? Oi! When mating season comes, need to use ear muffs!

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Yes, it never works out well when they introduce something where it doesn't belong. We have a similar problem here with iguanas, and a small parrot whose name I forget at the moment. Both compete with various local fauna for food and territory, but lacking predators and able to outbreed them are winning handily.
I am told the only two places in the world where the coquis sing are Puerto Rico and Hawaii. Here people don't mind or even really notice the singing. A good thing, since breeding season here is all year long.

Here in Florida we seem to be dominated by Cuban Tree Frogs. For a couple of years I tried to attract native frogs by building a small pond. Unfortunately, other than a very few Little Grass Frogs, the tadpoles grew into Cubans. I love frogs, but would rather not encourage the invasives. No more ponds for me.

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Here in Florida we seem to be dominated by Cuban Tree Frogs. For a couple of years I tried to attract native frogs by building a small pond. Unfortunately, other than a very few Little Grass Frogs, the tadpoles grew into Cubans. I love frogs, but would rather not encourage the invasives. No more ponds for me.

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In Puerto Rico the invasive frog is this guy:
This is the cain toad, it is about the size of a persons foot and was introduced to control insects on the various plantations (when there were plantations) because it eats everything. Unfortunately, it eats everything, and as such is a nuisance everywhere it was introduced - it eats or competes with many native species and it is toxic to animals that eat it. But as I understand it, for those inclined to lick a toad, this is the toad of choice.

In Puerto Rico the invasive frog is this guy:View attachment 39176
This is the cain toad, it is about the size of a persons foot and was introduced to control insects on the various plantations (when there were plantations) because it eats everything. Unfortunately, it eats everything, and as such is a nuisance everywhere it was introduced - it eats or competes with many native species and it is toxic to animals that eat it. But as I understand it, for those inclined to lick a toad, this is the toad of choice.

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Cane Toads are bad news indeed. We have some here, too. They certainly succeeded in taking over Australia years ago. Watch Cane Toads: An Unnatural History (on YouTube). Also Cane Toads: The Conquest.

Yes, it never works out well when they introduce something where it doesn't belong. We have a similar problem here with iguanas, and a small parrot whose name I forget at the moment. Both compete with various local fauna for food and territory, but lacking predators and able to outbreed them are winning handily.
I am told the only two places in the world where the coquis sing are Puerto Rico and Hawaii. Here people don't mind or even really notice the singing. A good thing, since breeding season here is all year long.

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The singing wouldn't be so bad, but they've been recorded at over 70 decibles and getting close to 80 decbiles! That's about how loud a jet airplane is taking off!!! That's how densely populated they are. We went hiking once and all of a sudden we were surrounded by thousands of those frogs! We were afraid to walk for fear of stepping on them. Then, just as quickly as they appeared, they were gone. We told the people at UH about the incident and they said the frogs must have been moving to a new spot for feeding as it wasn't breeding time - but getting close to it. Sure enough, a couple weeks later it was on the news that the coqui frogs of that particular vally (deep in Kalihi area) were very loud, keeping people up all night and day so volunteers were being sought to go help catch as many as possible. I couldn't go, but a few of my friends did - they lost count of how many bins they filled with those froggies.

Hawaii has no "naturally occuring" frogs as we are too far for them to have gotten here naturally - is why the birds are so prolific here. But some frogs got introduced as shipping from other parts of the world brought stuffs here - so yeah. We got them huge toads - used to be so many of them would have their carcasses all over the road here (we used to joke the roads in Whitmore Village were not asphalt, but layers of dead toads!) and they would invade school classrooms during the rainy season.

Don't see the toads so much anymore - but the coqui are definitely all over in the mountain forests and especially the deeper valleys. They are a real problem on the Big Island. Oahu is a bit populated which is why ppl here complain about them more.

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